Do live plants and baby snails help improve water quality in freshwater aquariums?

I just got some ferns with baby snails all over it. Will it help improve the water of the tank?

Do live plants and baby snails help improve water quality in freshwater aquariums?
Plants will do very good for the water quality of a fresh water aquarium if done in the right way. That is you must give about 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness to the plants so they will grow. When plants grow, they release oxygen into the water naturally. So if you want plants to grow, do not introduce oxygen into the water as this will stunt their growth.

Snails are just like fish in that they release by-products into the water that if not filtered will eventually foul up the water. Snails are good however for cleaning algae from the plants and glass. If you get overrun with snails, you may have to buy a puffer fish to clean them out
Reply:Plants, yes.

Plants are very beneficial to aquariums. They put oxygen into the water, which fish need, as well as clean up fish waste, (it's great fertalizer).

They also bring all sorts of beneficial bacteria and other critters that help fish tanks.



Snails, well, it depends.

In your case, they are going to kill that fern.

Take it out and rinse them down your garbage disposal.

OR

Put a leaf of Romaine lettuce in there. Weight it down and wait until the snails climb on, then put the whole thing into the garbage disposal.

No garbage disposal? Cover all of them in salt. It's very important that they leave your house dead.



Certain kinds of snails are beneficial in small numbers. They eat algae and are fun to watch. Remember that they will poop and contaminate the water as much as the fish.

Look up Mystery Snails. They're very interesting.



****NOTE****

Getting predatory fish to eat the snails is more trouble than it's worth.

The fish will also poop and contaminate water.

Predatory fish will pester (nibble, chase, tear fins) more peaceful fish.
Reply:Goldfish do have a habit of eating pretty much anything, including snails, so I wouldn't be too worried about that. Snails can be beneficial, but that is a relatively rare occurance. Unless you have a planted tank with Malaysian Trumpet Snails, you'll probably be tearing your hair out trying to get rid of them (unless you have a Goldfish to exterminate them). MTS help the plants by keeping the substrate from becoming anaerobic, which prevents the buildup of toxic gasses and allows for better root growth. Most other snails

really won't help the tank in any ways other than the small amount of algae or left over food they eat. If you like the snails, keep them, if you don't, go ahead and get rid of them; it really won't make too much difference either way.



True aquatic plants are very beneficial to aquariums. They oxygenate the water, remove harmful ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate (to a small degree; they do NOT replace maintenance), and compete with algae for nutrients. They also provide refuge and food for fish, as well as looking spectacular (though they certainly can be a headache at times). If by "ferns", you mean Java Ferns, great! They will be awesome in your tank. If you meant the pathetic excuses for ferns that they sell at Petco that look like a salad garnishing, which is a terrestrial plant, you're out of luck. The small, pinnate leaved ferns that Petco sells in their little arrangements will soon rot, while Java Fern will grow spectacularly. If it is the "fake fern", you'd be better off tossing it out now (or getting a refund) before it rots and pollutes your tank. If you can get a picture or some other identification on it, that would be great. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.



Soop Nazi



EDIT: 16 hours of light is the very LAST thing you want for your plants!!! That would cause a MAJOR algae breakout, which is pretty much hell to deal with... The very longest you'd want the lights on would be 12 hours a day.
Reply:live plants do good for tanks they make it easier for your fish to breath oxygen underwater. snails do a good job keeping the tank clean. they are scavengers so if anything in your tanks dies they can clean it up for you. they also feed on the algae on the sides of the tank